RYAN
HARPER scored a double double in winning the T&T national chess
championship last Saturday. The first double is the fact that he has now
won the title for the second time, having taken it first in 2002. The
second double is the fact that he has again halted Christo Cave’s
remarkable run of 13 victories in the championship contest, having first
done so in 2002.

Harper,
who graduated from the University of New Brunswick with a degree in
business administration earlier this year, is undoubtedly a young chess
player of geat talent, one might even say of grandmaster potential. He is,
in fact, the first T&T player to earn the FIDE Mster title. However,
exactly what his ambitions are in the game is hard to tell since he is not
particularly communicative when talking about himself.

Asked
whether he has any hope of matching or exceeding Cave’s exceptional
record, Harper said characteristically, “All I can say is that I will
continue to play chess. Whatever eventually happens, happens.”

Although
he was beaten by Cave in their individual encounter, that was Harper’s
only loss in the 11-round finals. He finished on nine points, ahead of
second placed Yogendranath Ramsingh by 1.5 points. He conceded draws in
his first two games to Dr Edison Chang and David Christopher, then
proceeded to run through the tournament with a string of eight victories.

On the
other hand, the defending champion who started impressively with four
straight wins ran into stiff opposition from FM Mario Merritt, Ravishen
Singh, Ramsingh and Dr Chang, losing to all four.

Meanwhile,
two-time champion Ramsingh overcame his first round setback against
first-time finalist Hayden Lee to score six wins and two draws, beating
Cave in the tenth round to set up a virtual final between himself and
Harper.

The game,
however, did not live up to expectations. Instead of an epic struggle, it
turned out to be an illustrtion of the fact that chess, although it is not
a game of chance, can sometimes be flawed by blunders and missed
opportunities. The fact is that Ramsingh, playing a positional Sicilian
with the black pieces, should have won a bishop, and quite likely the game
and the championship, on move 27 but, instead, went for an exchange of
bishop for rook, giving Harper an unstoppable mate - ironically using the
same bishop he should have lost!

Harper
confirmed his strength by winning the blitz tournament which preceded the
prize giving ceremony on Sunday.

The open
tournament which ran alongside the national finals was won by Kurtis Chong
who finished with six out of seven points. Guelmo Rosales also scored six
points but took second spot by the tie-breaker. Third was Prakash Persad
on five while the fourth place was shared by Paul Browne, Justin Salloum,
Frank Furlonge, Andrew Bowles and Carl Jacobs, all on 4.5.

At the
final ceremony... Srinivasan Gopalan, Managing Director of New India
Assurance pledged his company’s continued support for the tournament and
complimented the Association for its professional organisation. Also
expressing continued support was Lisa Sargeant of Heartbeat 103.5 FM radio
which gave extensive couverage to the contest.

Kurtis
Chong called on the Association to hold an Open Forum to chart the way
forward for chess.

The RAND
Credit Union was also commended for providing a comfortable venue for the
finals. Appreciation was also expressed for the work of arbiters, Dr
Gregory Boyce, John Raphael and Geoffrey Marcelle.